Exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation: a review
One page on PainSci cites Pyne 1994: A Deep Dive into Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Unaccustomed exercise may result in significant damage to skeletal muscle and cause delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in both recreational and elite athletes. Two basic mechanisms-'metabolic' and 'mechanical' stress--have been proposed to explain how exercise initiates damage to skeletal muscle fibres. The extent of damage, particularly after eccentrically-biased exercise, has been assessed by histological and ultrastructural examination, and the measurement of the efflux of cytosolic enzymes into the circulation. The role of reactive oxygen species in the mediation of exercise-induced oxidative damage to muscle and the protection offered by anti-oxidant defence systems have been well studied. Free radical generation is normally estimated by indirect methods such as chemiluminescence, spectrophotometry, flow cytometry, or the measurement of products of lipid peroxidation such as malondialdehyde (MDA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Although several theories have been proposed to account for the DOMS phenomenon, the underlying mechanisms are still to be elucidated. A group of proteins known collectively as cytokines regulate inflammatory and immunological processes involved in the repair of damaged tissue.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Topical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion achilles tendinopathy (the NEAT trial): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Kirwan 2024 Br J Sports Med.
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